The LPGA is the oldest women’s sports league in the USA. It started way back in 1950 with 13 tournaments and a total prize fund of $50,000 for its inaugural season. By comparison, the WNBA was founded in 1996, and its first season began in 1997. Despite the late start, the WNBA and many other women’s sports are gaining significant momentum. They are attracting record audiences, rising sponsorship valuations, and a new generation of fans. Yet professional golf has struggled to capture the same cultural boom.

The tour has the stars, global reach, major events, and commercial backing to compete for attention. But there’s still something that it lacks, and Commissioner Craig Kessler knows exactly what that is.

“The LPGA has done almost nothing to tell the stories of our athletes. And by the way, the stories are way more interesting outside the ropes than they are inside the ropes,” Kessler said, speaking at The Epicenter: Global Sports Summit last week, as reported by Sports Business Journal.

Women’s sports consumption is increasing in the USA. It hit 28.6 billion minutes in H1 2026, up 18% year over year, with 122.5 million Americans now active in the ecosystem. Sponsor valuations have surged across major leagues as well: the WNBA’s have increased by 71% since 2022, while the NWSL’s have increased by 82%. The LPGA is also part of this growth story, but its sponsor valuations have grown more slowly than those of other major leagues, rising by only 51% since 2022.

But the commissioner is already aware of this, and has since put actions in motion to change that.

“There’s no silver bullet. We’re changing it in a handful of ways,” Craig Kessler told Rachel Axon after the summit. “So having all of our broadcasts live with a much higher quality product on TV when fans tune in, they’re delighted in a way they weren’t previously.”

Partnerships with Golf Channel, FM (the insurer and title sponsor of the FM Championship), and Trackman to make the sport more accessible for fans are proof enough that the LPGA Tour is heading in the right direction. Kessler, in fact, already knows the kind of content that would resonate with fans.

He specifically pointed out examples of Charley Hull smoking mid-round and Nelly Korda attending the Met Gala in 2024. The commissioner said that showing similar on-course and off-course content that is not directly relevant to golf can help attract younger fans. He also noted that travel and lifestyle content could be an advantage, since the LPGA Tour plays in far more countries than the PGA Tour, including China, South Korea, and Singapore.

Indeed, that’s actually a plus point, according to Craig Kessler.

“You look at most leagues in America, they’re working hard to figure out how to expand overseas. We’re already there,” he added.

Sharing off-course content in all these countries can attract many traditional and non-traditional golf fans.

This isn’t his vision alone. He noted that before he became commissioner, only about 15 professionals used to show up for preseason content shoots. That number was 115 this year, and continues to grow.

Many elite professionals themselves have spoken about bringing more fans to the sport.

Nelly Korda & co. on expanding golf

Speaking at the AIG Women’s Open 2026, World No. 1 Nelly Korda opened up about being the most visible star of the LPGA Tour. She has had an excellent season overall: in 15 starts, she has won four events, including the US Women’s Open, and finished runner-up three times. The prospect of completing a career Grand Slam and being inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame has only raised her profile further.

When a media representative asked her about it at the AIG Women’s Open, she said that she might have been uncomfortable a couple of years ago. But now she is comfortable, because she is at a stage in her career where she can be herself in front of the camera, too.

“If people don’t like it, that’s fine. If that inspires the next generation, that’s great. That’s what I would like,” she said.

Similarly, Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, Rose Zhang, and others have become more active in interacting with fans, increasingly sharing their off-course moments on social media.

Kessler has said that the outside-the-course lives of LPGA stars are even more interesting than their on-course personas and coverage. There are many ideas stirring in his mind, but how he implements them to make the LPGA a bigger part of the women’s sports boom will be worth watching.